Category Archive: vacation

Family vacation to Oahu, Hawaii!

Posted by Lisa On October 30th, 2015

Over the summer we decided to take a family vacation in October which is typically off-season for a lot of places so it’s not as risky to fly standby using Kevin’s flight benefits. Initially we had the grand idea of taking the girls to Spain to visit my good friend Heather and her family. We expedited the processing for Lucia’s passport (paying an arm and a leg!) and had every intention of going until Kevin looked up the flights and saw that the flight from Newark, NJ to Madrid was filling up fast so we couldn’t take the chance of not getting on the flight there with two little munchkins in tow. 🙁 We then had our hearts set on visiting another good friend, Sneha, in New York! We were going to stay a few nights at the beach on the Jersey Shore then a few nights in New York City. We had only decided on NY about a week or so before our intended departure date and we found the hotels were filling up really quickly and that they were exorbitantly priced. We were so stressed about finding a hotel that could accommodate us (we needed at least a suite so that Lucia could be put to bed early and we could hang out in the living room area without disturbing her) and that wouldn’t break the bank and that was in a safe area and we had to make the sad decision to cancel those plans as well. 🙁 🙁

So what to do with less than a week before our departure date with no idea of where to go? Oahu! We found a hotel two blocks from Waikiki Beach for 6 nights for just a little more than we were going to pay for 2 nights in NYC so we knew it was meant to be. Kevin and I have been to Maui (that was Sirena’s first trip to Hawaii) and the big island (for our honeymoon) but never Oahu and there are multiple flights to/from there each day so the chances of us getting on a flight flying standby were looking good. Less than a week after deciding on our destination we were there! Now that’s the best kind of travel planning, no months and months of anticipation. 🙂

Tues, Oct 20 (my birthday!)

We woke early that morning to get on the 8:40am flight from LAX to Honolulu and we were lucky that there were over 80 seats available so we got the entire 5 seat middle row to ourselves! This was Lucia’s first flight and she was a dream! This was Sirena’s upteenth flight and she was an old pro. We couldn’t have asked for better travel companions. A woman in the aisle across from us even commented to us that she didn’t realize the kids were there the entire time and how well-behaved they were. 🙂

Can you tell they’re tired?

Lucia’s first flight!

We picked up our rental car and immediately drove to get some lunch at Soon’s Kal-Bi-Drive-Inn, a Korean/Hawaiian restaurant. We then headed to our hotel, Aston Waikiki Sunset, to get settled in.

The girls enjoying our awesome view from the 14th floor!

We decided to check out the pool area which was beautiful but the hotel cast a shadow over the pool in the mid-afternoon so it was pretty chilly and we couldn’t hang that long.

Birthday photo with my girls <3 after our quick dip in the pool

In addition, Hawaii is 3 hours early compared to California so the girls (and us!) were getting tired pretty early on–Lucia actually went to bed at 4pm! Sirena and I took a walk down to Waikiki Beach once little sis was in bed to pick up some Subway to take back to the hotel for dinner and of course we couldn’t resist putting our toes in the ocean for a few minutes.

Sirena did NOT want to get out of the water

That night, the three of us were in bed by 7pm (10pm CA time so it was a looong day!).

Wed, Oct 21

So what happens when we go to bed ridiculously early? We’re all up and at ’em at 3:30am!

In case you ever wondered what Honolulu looked like at 3:30am…you’re welcome.

This is what we do at the butt crack of dawn

We decided to make a short drive to Nu’uanu Pali Lookout to watch the sunrise. Both girls fell asleep on the way there so we had to go out in shifts: Kevin first and then I took Sirena out on my own while Lucia continued snoozing.

You snooze, you lose Lucia! 😉

My glamour shot girl

It was sooo windy there but Sirena didn’t care, she had a blast running around since we were the only ones there!

A rooster calling on the chickens (one of which Sirena decided to name “Butthead” haha!)

At LAX the day before we met a woman named Madonna who had just been visiting her grandkids in Cerritos (one of which was Sirena’s age which is how our conversation started) and was on her way back home. It ended up that she worked at the hotel across the street from where we were staying and she invited us to their breakfast buffet the following day so we decided to take her up on the offer this morning and boy are we glad we did! It was all-you-can-eat and she only charged us for one adult meal. She also gave us a doggy bag FULL of food which was so awesome.

After our crazy early morning and huge breakfast we went back to the hotel for a family nap (me and Lucia in the bedroom, Kevin and Sirena on the sofa bed). After getting some much-needed rest we made our way down to Waikiki Beach for some late afternoon fun. It was so awesome being just walking distance from this amazing beach!

Me and my favorite 3 year old

Seaside nap

Lucia’s first time in the Hawaiian waters

That face! Poor thing.

Much better!

Thurs, Oct 22

Before we all fully adjusted to our new time zone we decided to capitalize on another early morning wake up call and pack up the girls for a drive to the North Shore.

As soon as we got off of the freeway (Oahu is the only Hawaiian island with actual freeways most of which are found in Honolulu) we felt like we were on the two-lane highways that we were used to in Maui and the big island–beautiful, lush surroundings, roadside fruit stands, turquoise waters only a stone’s throw away from the highway–ahh, paradise.

We grabbed an early lunch at Mike’s Huli Huli Chicken, a permanent food truck that had incredible chicken (Kevin was a fan) and the most amazing garlic shrimp (yummy!)

Sirena was in heaven with our Blue Hawaii smoothie

With Lucia’s random naps and feeding schedule we spent a lot of the drive sightseeing while on the road. It was definitely not the way that Kevin and I prefer to do Hawaii (we love to do a lot of excursions, using the awesome guidebooks by Andrew Doughty to find the gems and must-see things of the island, stopping every few miles on the long drive to check something cool out) but we had decided before we left to focus on the girls this trip and that we’d just have to go on our own another day to see everything.

In the North Shore our destination was Shark’s Cove which is a kid-friendly tide pool and beach. Kevin and Sirena were the only ones that ventured out into the tide pool while Lucia and I hung out in the shade of the palm trees.

Crinkle nose, my favorite!

That night after putting Lucia to sleep, the three of us celebrated by birthday (belatedly) with a yummy confetti cake (and another earlier-than-normal bedtime…we know how to party!)

Fri, Oct 23

For breakfast we were invited one more time to Madonna’s hotel for a breakfast buffet and she ended up comping us our entire meal…so awesome! We were so grateful for her generosity.

Our big breakfast fueled us up to walk a few blocks to the Honolulu Zoo! We spent a couple of hours there and really enjoyed the quaint and well-kept grounds–not too big to be overwhelming, just the right size for a family with two small kids (it reminded us a lot of the Oakland Zoo!).

Wild peacocks out roaming the grounds, these were arm’s length distance from us

The highlight was the Keiki (Kids) Zoo with a great playground, petting zoo, and rest area.

Sirena had the most fun climbing on and around this huge tree with the greatest above-ground root system.

Our only family photo of the trip!

After the zoo we walked back towards Waikiki Beach to have lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise–my mom’s husband Steve is related to one of the owners and graciously gave us a gift card to enjoy a meal there (just like he did when we were in Maui!) We then went back to the hotel for a much-needed family nap.

We decided to go back to Waikiki Beach (you can’t compete with walking a few blocks versus strapping the girls in the car and driving to another beach when it comes to simplicity!) but this time we left the phones and cameras at the hotel thinking the whole family would take a dip at the same time (and we didn’t want to risk leaving valuables on such a crowded beach). It turned out to be a little too chilly to put Lucia in the water so once again Kevin and I took turns going into the water with big sis and hanging out on the beach with little sis. The lighting was INCREDIBLE–we were there from 4-6pm so the sun was making its way to the horizon the entire time we were there and it cast the most amazing warm light on the girls, I was really kicking myself for not bringing anything to capture the moments on camera!

That night after putting Lucia to bed the three of us stayed up until (gasp!) 9pm watching the movie “Boxtrolls” that we rented from the lobby.

Sat, Oct 24

We wanted to do one last beach day so we headed out to Ko Olina Lagoon near the Disney Aulani Resort. There are 4 lagoons in this area and we went to Ko Olina Lagoon #4 which is the farthest from the resort. It had the most amazing, clear, warm water perfect for wading with little kids!

Another seaside nap for the little munchkin

After a fun (and tiring!) morning in the sun we had a really nice lunch at Monkeypod Kitchen just a few minutes from the lagoon. We then treated ourselves to some yummy ice cream at a shop around the corner and of course the girls crashed on the drive back to the hotel!

Island girl

After putting Lucia to bed, I decided to take an evening walk with Sirena to do some shopping in Waikiki. I put her in our umbrella stroller and ended up walking over 2 miles total until a little after 8pm! We had a blast checking out some fun Hawaiian souvenir shops, buying clothes for the family and gifts for a few folks back at home, and just spending some one-on-one time together which we very rarely get any more.

She was STOKED to get a Spiderman balloon animal from one of the street vendors. Spidey even came home with us!

We checked out this awesome underground t-shirt shop called 88 Tees and brought a few shirts back from there

This was in front of Nani’s Gift Shop which she found hilarious (Nani is what Sirena calls my mom)

I let her drive me around the block a few times 😉

Sun, Oct 25

Our last full day on Oahu we decided to visit Pearl Harbor–we knew we couldn’t come all this way and not visit such an historic site (Kevin for the military aspect and me for the significance to US history). Sirena loves airplanes so we decided to focus our visit on the Pacific Aviation Museum (there are quite a few museums/attractions to visit at Pearl Harbor).

They had a ton of mannequins dressed up, this was a silly photo I took over the shoulder of one peeking out and seeing Kevin and Sirena in the distance

Sirena was so happy to find “the shark plane” from the museum’s advertisements…and there was even a mini one that kids could pretend to fly. Score!

Can you see Sirena in the cockpit?

They were in their element, that’s for sure.

Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted but needed to get some food so stopped at Young’s Kalbee, a delicious Korean restaurant. Sirena was so wiped that she actually remained asleep when Kevin got her out of the car and stayed asleep sitting on his lap for a good 15 minutes at the restaurant (unheard of these days!) She woke up in time to eat some lunch and then passed out again at the hotel for a couple of hours during family nap time.

The night before on our shopping excursion, Sirena and I bought two Hawaiian dresses for her and Lucia that I really wanted them to wear on the beach at sunset so I could take pictures of them. We just barely made it to Waikiki Beach for the last 10 minutes of sunlight. Sirena wasn’t in the best mood (come to find out she was sick, more on that below) and then Lucia faceplanted into the sand after only a few photos (and we had to rush to the water fountain to rinse the sand out of her eyes, poor thing) so I didn’t get any stellar shots of the two of them together but I am happy with how they turned out overall.

Before heading back to the hotel we took a 10 minute walk to get some Hawaiian shave ice–no trip to Hawaii is complete without shave ice!

Mon, Oct 26

This will go down in history as the day from hell (Isn’t it funny that each of our trips to Hawaii has one of those?? In Maui our day from hell was when Sirena got an ear infection on the Road to Hana when we had zero medicine and had to drive hours to the nearest Emergency Room. This day wasn’t nearly as bad but it was definitely comparable…)

We were up at 2am because Sirena said she has to use the potty. After 10 minutes of being up she threw up unexpectedly. She was able to go back to bed but I was wide awake by that time and patiently waiting for our alarm to go off at 2:45am.

Kevin and I got ourselves ready, packed up, and then woke the girls up at 3:15am. We all got into the car at 3:30am and dropped the rental car off at 4am. We made it through security without any incident and made our way to Gate 11 to check in for our 6am flight to LAX which we had checked that morning and it had over 100 seats available for standby so we thought we were in the clear. When we checked in with the gate agent we were told that an earlier flight to SFO had been cancelled so many of those passengers were moved to our 6am LAX flight and that it wasn’t looking promising for us to make it. Kevin was taking it all in stride while I was silently panicking because our luggage (me/Kevin/Lucia’s suitcase) and our two car seats made it on the 6am flight and we didn’t and because Sirena proceeded to throw up a second time at the gate. Luckily we kept Sirena’s suitcase as a carry-on so we had an extra set of clothes for her. We had 5 hours to spare until the next flight to LAX at 11am that we were hoping we’d get on somehow so we took our time cleaning up, getting breakfast, and looking at some of the shops.

You sure can’t tell here that she was sick as a dog (our tough girl)

Lucia was completely oblivious to what was going on, haha

By 10am we made our way to Gate 12 to check in with the gate agent. It wasn’t looking promising for this flight either but we waited around anyways. During the time we were waiting Sirena proceeded to throw up again and made a mess of her clothes (and the carpet). Wardrobe change #2 for Sirena. After all of the passengers were boarded, they called our name and said that there was ONE seat available and that we had to choose right away if we wanted it. Initially we were going to send me and Lucia if there was one seat available but the next flight at 12pm was looking really good (still over 100 seats available) and we took a chance and gave my seat away in hopes that we’d be able to be on the same flight at 12pm. We had to walk at least 1/2 a mile, me carrying Lucia while she was napping in my arms (not in the carrier) and Sirena’s suitcase over my shoulder and Kevin pushing Sirena in the stroller with two backpacks on, to get to Gate 16 where the 12pm flight was taking off from.

At Gate 16, Sirena was trying to nap on Kevin in the weirdest position

While waiting at this gate, Sirena proceeded to throw up a THIRD time and again made a mess of her clothes and the carpet. Wardrobe change #3 for Sirena! This of course happened as the plane was boarding and our row was being called…talk about stressful! In the end we were so grateful to be walking onto that plane, that our plan had worked out, and we actually ended up getting an entire row to ourselves.

We had spent 8 hours at the airport and then had another 5 hours on the airplane. Somehow (miraculously!) the flight was pretty uneventful–Sirena was in good spirits and didn’t have another throw up episode and Lucia was a dream (as always). So from being awake at 2am to landing at LAX at 8:30pm and home at 9:30pm I think it’s safe to say that this crazy horrible day more than made up for our amazing vacation! 😉 It definitely gave me a real look at the realities of flying standby (with kids) but in the end we are so happy we made it to a destination that’s been on our wish list for a while, we got to fly there for free, and we had such an enjoyable and relaxing time with our wonderful little travel buddies.

Until next time, Hawaii…aloha!

Family trip to Maui, Hawaii!

Posted by Lisa On February 20th, 2015

We had been looking forward for months to a last hurrah before baby Lucia makes her arrival–a family vacation to Maui, Hawaii! Kevin’s mom and our good family friend Judy joined us. We were finally going to use Kevin’s flight benefits for the airlines he works for and we were anxiously watching the flights to/from Maui to see how booked they were getting as the days passed. It was our first time flying standby and it’s a tricky business: we had to book our lodging for the week and hope beyond all hope that we’d be able to get a flight there to even use the lodging we paid for (and on the flip side, hope that we’d make it home okay and not have to stay a night in the airport or a cheap motel near the airport!). We had to pay in full a couple of months in advance (because so many places were getting booked up) and there weren’t many good options for places that would give us an actual refund if we didn’t show so it really was like playing the lottery in a way. Luckily, it all worked out beautifully and we ended up having 50 extra seats on the way home and over 100 extra seats on the flight there so we were given a row to ourselves!

We enjoyed seven nights and eight days in paradise and it was a wonderful way to kick off the third trimester of Lucia’s pregnancy and to enjoy our little family of three before our newest addition joins us.

Tuesday, Jan 27

We were up and at ’em at 4:30am getting our final things together so we could be at the airport by 7am. Sirena had been looking forward to getting on the airplane for weeks now so the whole way to the airport we were talking to her about how much fun we were about to embark on (this girl loves her airplanes!) The flight was just shy of 6 hours long which is the longest flight she’s been on and she was a real trooper, even snoozing on Daddy for about an hour.

Enjoying her first in-flight movie! “Book of Life”

So happy to have arrived! On the shuttle to pick up our rental car

We rented a sweet ride for our trip…a Jeep convertible! I was grateful to be able to sit shotgun for the majority of the time (I could not be squished in the backseat with the car seat the whole trip with my big ol’ belly and Dorothy and Judy agreed) but the times that I did ride in the backseat I could empathize with D & J that the backseat wasn’t nearly as comfy as the front seat. So next time around we may need to reconsider our car choice! But the convertible top and the way it handled rough terrain were really great.

After getting to our condo (a nice little 2 bedroom place a 1/2 mile from the beach in the town of Ka’anapali, just north of Lahaina) and unpacking our bags, we decided to have an early dinner at the Maui Brewing Co (which had yummy food and drinks, just crazy steep prices for any little add-ons which at other places would be included at no-cost). After dinner and on our drive back to the house, we made a quick stop at the tiniest little beach just south of Pohaku Park. We wanted to watch the sunset and thought this little patch of sand and beach would be a great backdrop. To our astonishment, after jumping down onto the sand from the lava rocks bordering the beach and the highway, we were greeted by two exhausted sea turtles taking a break just on the shore (we were feet away from jumping on top of one of them, we had no idea it was there!) It was the most incredible way to spend our first evening in Maui, watching the sunset and enjoying the company of two beautiful creatures.

Splashing her toes in the warm(ish) Hawaiian waters for the first time!

Wednesday, Jan 28

Hawaii is two hours behind California time (at this time of year, they don’t observe Daylight Savings Time so half of the year they’re three hours behind us) so we were all bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed at the ungodly hour of 4:30am! After hanging out at the house for a bit we decided to venture out and we were the first customers at Slappycakes, a fun restaurant where you cook your pancakes at your table. After a yummy breakfast we went to Safeway to buy some groceries so that most of our lunches and about half of our dinners could be eaten at home so we could save some money. After dropping our groceries off, we turned right around to enjoy the mid-morning at Launiupoko Beach Park–a toddler’s swimming paradise! It had a tiny little wading beach blocked by rocks that let ocean water come in gradually and didn’t get more than 2-3 feet deep. Sirena had a blast playing with her bucket and sand toys (thank you, Auntie Judy!) and testing her swimming legs in the warm waters.

We went back to the house so that Sirena could enjoy a much-needed nap while Dorothy and Judy went down to the beach closest to our house. We kept the evening pretty low-key with a BBQ dinner at home and then took to the main drag of Lahaina (the only real downtownish area on the island), Front Street, to watch the sunset, window shop, and enjoy the first (of many) Hawaiian gelatos.

Our only group photo on the trip!

Incredible sunset, amiright?!

It’s official: Sirena loves gelato.

Can’t ask for a better view while eating gelato!

Thursday, Jan 29

Thursday was set aside for our big travel day…we were going to drive the infamous Road to Hana! (Kevin was so looking forward to this day…he LOVES driving, especially windy, gravelly roads…and especially in a convertible Jeep). We woke up really early (jet lag was working in our favor that day) and set out mid-morning.

Our sweet ride

View from our convertible top

We followed along closely with the “Maui Revealed” guidebook that Kevin bought a year or two ago which talked about both the super popular spots and the not-so-well-known gems along the road, using the mile markers to point them out. The first part of the drive there were a ton of overlooks to stop at and take photos of the breathtaking coastline.

Looking out onto Honomanu Bay

We took a hidden dirt road (thanks to the guidebook) down to Honomanu Bay and enjoyed stretching our legs on the black sand (rocky) beach.

Girl on a mission with giant stick in her hand

Throwing rocks in the ocean, her favorite

She even got Mama and Grandma in on the action. Kevin took this series of photos as we threw our rocks into the ocean.

Proof that Kevin was on the trip, haha!

The Road to Hana during the peak tourist season is well known for incredible waterfalls around every turn. The guidebook warned that at certain times of year (come to find out, late January…) there isn’t much water flow to speak of for a lot of the waterfalls they describe and we quickly found that out after trying to get our eyes on a bunch of them. That just means we’ll have to come back, I guess…

At the urging of the guidebook, we took a small road into Ke’anae Peninsula and village for some awesome views and delicious banana bread and shave ice at Aunty Sandy’s roadside stand. Across the street from Aunty Sandy’s was a beautiful spot to take photos of the crashing waves against jagged lava boulders which we spent some time at before indulging ourselves in the sweet stuff.

Sirena mimicking the crashing waves

Walking the rock wall to Aunty Sandy’s (and hugging her baby Honey real tight)

Peekaboo!

Um…delicious. This was our favorite shave ice on the island that we tried this trip.

We got back on the road and shortly thereafter were met with tons of red brake lights just ahead. We had heard at Aunty Sandy’s that there was a lot of construction going on and that the road might be closing at some point but we didn’t think it’d be so soon! We were stopped for a few minutes before we started seeing some cars up ahead turning around and talking to each car on the way back. The driver told us that they were closing the road and that we should all just head back. We were so bummed!! We thought we’d wait it out a bit and the poor fools who listened to that guy really missed out because not 5 minutes later did they start letting traffic through (no joke!)

So glad we didn’t listen to that haole! 😉

From the Hana Highway section of the guidebook, one of the places I was really keen on visiting was Ching’s Pond. Most drivers don’t even notice the amazing waterfall and swimming hole just below the road but with the help of the guidebook we knew where to pull over and make our way down an extremely steep hill to this real gem. One of my favorite things is to swim in rivers and swimming holes like this (even more so than the ocean to be honest) so I was beyond excited to check it out. Of course the water was freeeeeezing so I hesitated quite a bit before being urged by Judy to get in the water already because she knew I’d end up regretting it later. Kevin jumped in first and Sirena joined the both of us for a 10 minute dip in the super refreshing waters.

My idea of paradise

We enjoyed our lunch on the rocks and were pleasantly surprised (or horrified, depends on which of us you’re talking about!) to be entertained by a guy who climbed up to the bridge where cars would pass and proceed to jump 25 feet down into Ching’s Pond below. We had read in the guidebook that if you were lucky you’d get to see some locals do it but it urged extreme caution because there is literally zero margin for error with this jump. The guy we saw did it twice and we all held our breath each time his feet left the platform!

Can you see the crazy man jumping? He’s just to the left of the bridge, in the center of the photo

I have to mention at this point that Sirena had been a bit under the weather a few days leading up to our trip. She was sniffly and congested off and on but we took our chances and she had been doing pretty well up until this point, just a little extra clingy with me. Our Road to Hana trip took a turn for the worst about 20 minutes after Ching’s Pond when we made a pit stop at Hana Bay. Sirena started complaining about her “owie, ear” and Kevin and I immediately freaked out that she had an ear infection that we had previously been clueless about. I picked her up and held her for about 10 minutes and she was crying and complaining about her ear and we couldn’t seem to distract her. Hana Bay is basically at the complete opposite end of the island from our condo so we were feeling really screwed but not totally hopeless at this point because although she was upset, she wasn’t out of sorts (…yet). We were kicking ourselves for not bringing the Tylenol that I had so thoughtfully packed from home but left at the condo (because why would we need Tylenol on the Road to Hana?!) but we thought that she had been in such good spirits and was such a trooper that things should be manageable. Boy, were we wrong.

This is the part of the trip that we lovingly call “The Road from Hell.” We were in basically the most desolate part of the island on the roughest, bumpiest, most windy part of the Hana Highway. There were no towns, no drug stores, NOTHING for two hours. Sirena was in complete and utter turmoil for the entire 2 hours we were on that part of the drive–she tried so hard to fall asleep but every damn bump and turn would wake her up and she’d be screaming out in pain. Each time she’d wake up she’d cry out, “Hold me, Mommy! Hold me, Mommy!” over and over again and all I could do was hold her hand and try to comfort her as best as I could squished in the backseat next to her (and Judy helped with trying to comfort her as best she could squished on the other side of the car seat). The drive was pure torture, that is no exaggeration at all. We were all so utterly helpless–all we could do was keep driving as fast as we could to just get to the next damn town where they had an Emergency Room we could take her to. As we were approaching the town of Kula, Sirena changed her tune from, “Hold me, Mommy!” to, “Save me, Mommy” and it absolutely broke all of our hearts. We finally made it to Kula and followed the signs to a windy road up the hill a bit to the hospital. As we turned the corner I started to freak out a bit because it was getting dark and the hospital looked like it came straight out of a scary movie (looked like an old insane asylum!) Once we saw the ER it looked a bit more normal but I was starting to question our decision to go to this hospital to be honest! Turns out it was a beautiful hospital with an incredible view and we were in and out of ER in…get this…thirty minutes.

Squeezing Daddy so tight

The doctor was great and gave Sirena some much-needed Tylenol which worked quickly and eased her incredible pain. We drove about 10 minutes to the closest pharmacy and picked up a prescription for her ear infection. From Kula we had another 45 minutes but luckily at this point the road was smooth and fairly straight so Sirena was able to pass out for the remainder of the drive and stayed asleep until we got to the condo and quickly passed back out for the night.

The grown-ups stayed up a bit to unwind from a crazy stressful day with late night pizza and beer/wine. What…a…day.

Friday, Jan 30

For good reason, we took it easy on Friday to let Sirena recover from such a traumatic experience and heal up as best as she could. We headed out to Kapalua Beach for some snorkeling for the grown-ups and wading in the water/playing in the sand for Sirena.

You’d think she hadn’t just had the worst day of her life the day before…

The only photo we took of Kapalua Beach (Judy’s in the middle on her floatie!)

Only Kevin, Judy and Dorothy went out snorkeling this day and they say it wasn’t the best waters for snorkeling. In fact, there was some gnarly coral that banged ’em up pretty good (I won’t name names 😉 ). Yikes!

Sirena passed out in the car just as we left the beach and so the grown-ups got lunch to go from a mixed plate spot that had great reviews. It did not disappoint! Super yummy, local food. Just what the doctor ordered.

We had a relaxing afternoon at the house and took to Lahaina for dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. My mom’s husband’s daughter (you following?) is the niece of the owners of this chain of restaurants (I lost you, didn’t I?) so we were excited to check it out (and had a super helpful VIP gift card that Steve let us have to help pay for our meal, thank you Steve!) There was a musician playing great music during the meal, we had a great view of the moon over the ocean behind us, and the food was yummy so it was a great choice! And we finished off the (what turned out to be a super late) evening with some window shopping and yummy gelato.

In front of Cheeseburger in Paradise

You can’t really tell but Sirena is actually wearing the souvenir we bought for Lucia…an 18 mos shirt! I couldn’t believe it when I walked in the room and she had it over her head, haha. We proceeded to buy her a matching one, this time a size 3T. 😉

A giant flip flop is just asking to be climbed on, right? She then proceeded to put it on the ground and pretend it was a surfboard, entertaining the two shopkeepers. Hah!

Saturday, Jan 31

After a fairly laid back day and how well Sirena was doing we decided to do another big trip (this time with her antibiotics and plenty of Tylenol on hand) on Saturday. Our destination? ‘Iao Needle with lots of stops along the way.

Kevin in his happy place

Talk about an incredible coastline

Our first stop on our West Maui excursion was to Nakalele Blowhole–described by the guidebook, “the ocean here has undercut the shoreline, pounding underneath the lava shelf, where it spits through a human-sized hole in the lava. The blowhole varies tremendously with the tide and size of the surf” and we were lucky that we got here on a good day. There was plenty of action from the blowhole even as high up as we were (we weren’t feeling adventurous enough to walk all the way down with Sirena). The sign at the top of the hill said, “Warning: Stay clear of blowhole. You can be sucked in and killed. This is NOT a water park.” You don’t have to tell us twice with a pregnant lady and a toddler!

Checking out the blowhole down below

Thar she blows! (You knew that was coming, right?)

Shortly after the blowhole, the road narrowed dramatically to one lane and began its extremely windy ascent up through the mountains. For this whole part of the drive, we had to keep our eyes peeled for oncoming cars and yield to them as best we could on the side of the highway. You could tell who was a local and who was a tourist by the speed with which people took those turns. Some of those people were insane!

We came across an overlook a few miles from where we parked to walk to the blowhole and we got a great birds-eye view of it:

Incredible view of the road ahead!

At the urging of the guidebook, we kept our eyes peeled every turn for a tiny little village called Kahakuloa which claimes to have…get this…the “best banana bread in the world.” Lots of small roadside stands sell banana bread but the guidebook claimed that the banana bread at Julia’s roadside stand was hands-down the best so you know we had to check it out. Turns out not only was the banana bread the bomb, they also sold an amazing coconut candy and a passion fruit butter to spread on (thick!) on the slice of banana bread. Heaven!!

Sirena enjoying her coconut candy and the view of the taro fields below Julia’s stand

View of Kahakuloa Village as we made our way up the mountain again

We made another stop a few miles up the mountain at the Kaukini Gallery filled with beautiful art/souvenirs/jewelry…and a much-needed restroom! After that point the windy, narrow road widens and straightens out into a two car highway and we made our way to Central Maui for the main attraction: the ‘Iao Needle in the town of Wailuku.

View of the ‘Iao Valley

Before making our way up the many stairs to the ‘Iao Needle lookout, we had a nice picnic lunch on the grounds and enjoyed the overcast weather for a change with about 5 minutes of sprinkling. Such an incredible spot for lunch and taking in the awe-inspiring sights.

It was a good hour of driving through the central part of Maui and back up along the West Maui coast back to our house and luckily Sirena napped most of the way. We were itching for some more beach time and pulled over at Mile Marker 14 for what we heard was some incredible snorkeling. Turns out the snorkeling was just meh but the beach and water itself was calm and warm and basically perfect to end our day.

We had a BBQ dinner at home and could barely keep our eyes open past 9pm so we called it a night!

Sunday, Feb 1

We had another chill day planned for Sunday (aka Super Bowl Sunday for people who actually enjoy football, haha). Kevin, Sirena, Dorothy and I took a drive to a coffee farm and to the now closed Sugar Cane Train to take some fun photos of Sirena on an abandoned train (one of her faves). We did a little souvenir shopping, had a coffee, and went back to the house so Sirena could nap…but she didn’t (it’s like she knew her time in Hawaii was running out so she wanted to enjoy every last minute of it!)

After a little lunching on our patio we decided to take a dip in the pool to take advantage and to spend some time as a family. I didn’t get any shots at the pool itself but here are some shots of our sun-kissed beauty around the complex after pool time:

Enjoying the view at lunch

Sirena’s third most favorite thing: MAPS!

Her new “silly face.” She does it all the time!

Showing us the way home

Before we left Maui we all wanted to make another sunset visit to Pohaku Park where we made the unexpected sea turtle discovery our first night on the island so we decided to do that this night. The turtles were out as we had hoped and we enjoyed watching the sunset on the little patch of sand with our new local friends.

Exploring the rocks

Auntie Judy showing Sirena something fun

After the sun set we made our way back out to Lahaina for some dinner. We had no idea that it would take us over an hour to find a place to eat! It was already getting late and we walked up and down Front Street trying to find a place that everyone wanted to eat, had decent reviews and had a nice ambiance, wasn’t ridiculously priced, and would seat us right away. We were starting to go nuts because we weren’t able to find a darn place when we finally stumbled upon Captain Jack’s that turned out to be a great dinner (and it was across the street from where we started our search, go figure!) After dinner we had another yummy gelato which made it allll better.

Monday, Feb 2

We started out fairly early that morning to take a drive down to South Maui on the west coast to check out some of the beaches near the docks where we’d go out on our whale watching/snorkel tour midday. On the way there we stopped at an overlook that was always super crowded because of the great vantage point for whale watching.

We drove through the towns of Kihei and Wailea and found our way to Makena Beach for about an hour of swimming.

From the beach you could see Molokini Crater off in the distance where we’d be snorkeling just a few hours later!

After our quick beach trip we packed back into the Jeep and made our way back up the coast to the docks to climb aboard the Four Winds boat. The boat ride was at least an hour long and it covered some extremely choppy waters. I was having a hard time keeping comfortable holding onto Sirena (and trying to keep her from flying off the bench) and keeping my own huge pregnant belly from jumbling around too much. I kept a close eye on the Molokini Crater (our final destination) and hoping that we’d get there sooner rather than later! There were some whales spotted on the way there but I wasn’t able to focus too much on them under the circumstances but Kevin got some good shots of them:

Captain Judy at your service!

Once we docked at Molokini Crater (which is actually pretty rare for the afternoon snorkel trips, most days the afternoon tours have to go somewhere else because the weather doesn’t cooperate so we were very lucky to get out there!) the waters were extremely calm and incredibly clear and blue. Sirena and I stayed on deck the majority of the time, eating lunch and watching overboard while K, D and J snorkeled. Judy came back aboard when there were around 20 minutes to spare for snorkeling and offered me her wetsuit jacket so that I could take a dip which I appreciated so much! I hadn’t planned on snorkeling but it was so glorious and I’m really glad that I was able to get out there. Sirena even climbed down the steps (wearing a life jacket of course) and sat on the bottom step with me kicking her legs in the water and enjoying some “swim” time herself. It ended up being a really perfect afternoon.

We spent maybe 3.5 minutes at the glass bottom of the boat but it was cool while it lasted

The ride back to the docks was much more pleasant and I was able to actually enjoy the view!

Sirena decided to drive us home…

We finished the busy day out in the sun with a low-key dinner at home. About an hour before Sirena’s bedtime, Kevin and I finally made our way out for a “date night” while Dorothy and Judy helped put Sirena to bed. We didn’t do anything huge because we were both pretty exhausted and we still had some souvenirs to buy so we did some shopping, walked down Front Street holding hands (and not worrying about a toddler running around, what a relief!), and enjoying some gelato (for me) and shave ice (for Kevin). It was nice to have a couple of hours to ourselves before our trip came to an end the next day.

Tuesday, Feb 3

Our final day in Maui arrived and we spent the majority of the morning cleaning and packing. We left with just enough time to grab some lunch before heading to the airport. We could not believe that not 5 minutes from the airport and returning our rental car we got hit by another car! Long story short, there didn’t end up being any damage on our car (the other guy couldn’t claim the same) and we were able to leave with no issues at all (thank goodness!) The timing was unbelievable and I’m just so happy we didn’t end our trip on a bad note.

We got to the airport with about 10 minutes to hang out at the terminal. The flight home was not as easy going as the first (Sirena was exhausted and had a harder time napping but luckily she eventually conked out) and we finally touched down at LAX to make the last leg of the trip home. Home, sweet, home.

We had an amazing time in Maui but we really were so glad to be home. Can’t wait for our next family vacation…as a family of four!

A baby story [Part II]: Weeks 14 + 15

Posted by Lisa On November 6th, 2014

So this time around I’ve decided to post bi-weekly instead of weekly. Now that we’re not preparing for our very first baby and now that I know a lot about what’s going on and what to expect (and with my life with a toddler and crazy schedule) it just feels better doing it bi-weekly. But the belly photos will still be weekly to compare week to week when all’s said and done (one of my favorite things to look back on with Sirena’s pregnancy!)

Week 14: Baby’s the size of a lemon

The start of the second trimester came with a whole lot more energy and I’ve only had to take a nap every third day or so instead of every day. 😉 And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect because this was the wildest week I’ve had in a long time. I’m producing my mom’s play “Shadows” and I was working like crazy editing her 100 page script, preparing for our first rehearsal with the directors and cast, preparing for and moving out temporarily while our house was tented (termites, oy!), and going on a 3-day work trip to Sacramento (this all within a 6 day span!)

Needless to say I am glad that week is over and that I survived somehow! The only major pregnancy development this week has been some intense lower back pain. I never experienced sciatica or really much back pain with Sirena’s pregnancy but I remember when she was a newborn I was lying flat on my back in my sister’s living room and I got a sharp and intense pain in my lower back on the left side which happened off and on over the past 2 years. The past couple of weeks, though, it has been really frequent and really intense. The pain is sharp and in my lower back but it doesn’t shoot down my leg like sciatica does. There have been a few times that I can’t put a lot of weight on my left leg or I have to modify the way I get up from sitting or laying down. Definitely something to talk to at my next prenatal appointment.

Belly shot!

My little shadow Lola at it again! And can you tell I’ve been out of practice with these timed self portraits? I need to work on better lighting, haha!

Week 15: Baby’s the size of an apple

Complete opposite of the previous week came a huge breath of fresh air with a much-anticipated family vacation! The trip coincided with my birthday which was an extra special treat. We went to Palm Springs with my mom and Steve and had an absolute blast. This was the first real vacation we’ve taken as a family since Sirena was 6 months old when we went to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and it’s safe to say that this girl likes to vacation! The weather was still gloriously hot even in late October and we enjoyed an early morning hike, a trip to The Living Desert zoo, and lots and lots of pool time.

The only major pregnancy development this week is dizziness! I never experienced this before and thought it was just random but when I’d get dizzy at least once a day for a week I started to worry. I went to trusty Google and it seems that dizziness during pregnancy is common and is usually related to changing hormones, faster blood flow to baby, and slower blood flow to the mama. There was one day when I just could not shake the dizzy feeling off and I began to get a bit worried but since then it’s been okay. Just another interesting way to prove that no two pregnancies are alike!

Sirena saying hi to the baby belly

Belly shot!

No photo this week, oops!

Other pregnancy updates

Total weight gained: 0 pounds
Food cravings/aversions: The meat cravings have definitely calmed down but they’re still there for sure. The only other out of the ordinary food I’ve been interested in is cold cereal for breakfast which is generally not something I go to. No major aversions at all right now.
Fun baby developments: Baby measures around 4 inches long and weighs a whopping 2.5 ounces and it’s probably sucking its thumb and wriggling its little toes all while bouncing around like crazy even though I can’t yet feel it.
How many years Kevin and I have been together as of this post: THIRTEEN YEARS! We celebrated our 13th anniversary on 10/27. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been together almost half of our lives (we were just a couple of fresh-outta-high-school-nerdy-18-year-olds when we started dating in 2001) but it just keeps getting better. Here’s to another Lucky 13 years together, Kevin (aka Daddy)!

Sirena’s first international trip: Zihuatanejo, Mexico!

Posted by Lisa On January 10th, 2013

To celebrate my good friend Alison’s 30th birthday we tagged along with her family and friends to Zihuatanejo, Mexico for a week-long trip over New Year’s. What an incredible experience, we are so happy we decided to go!

Early morning at LAX, anxiously awaiting Sirena’s first flight ever!

We made it! Sirena did GREAT on the flight.

Patiently waiting in line at customs

Sleepy, sweaty baby on the car ride to the hotel

Lounging

Sirena wanted a sip of my mango margarita

First time in the sand!

Yummy sand

First taxi ride (notice no car seat?!)

Early morning on the dock, waiting for our boat to go snorkeling

Sirena the sailor. She LOVED the boat ride, not so much the oversized life vest, though…

Birthday girl

Alison and Laura

On Playa las Gatas, accessible via boat

One of the many naps taken on the beach

The most beautiful pina coladas I’ve ever seen!

Our hotel, Quinta Camelinas

Our room

The house neighboring the hotel had a dog that would keep watch from the rooftop, so funny

Some of Sirena’s admirers

The pinata we got Alison for her birthday

Group shot! Minus Sirena and plus Sirena’s sister, her boyfriend, and their friend

Sunset from our hotel

Group dinner

We were so amazed by how many Mexican women would approach us and ask to hold Sirena…the one that blew us away the most was this waitress at Bandido’s who held Sirena for 15 minutes while we ate dinner! She took her around the whole restaurant showing her off to the manager, the bartender, and the street vendors. This was by far one of my favorite memories of the trip!

Family photo on the beach

Our little mermaid

Last night in Zihua, walking to dinner

Sirena learning a thing or two from daddy about airplanes, on our way home after an AMAZING trip!

Sirena’s 1st Christmas

Posted by Lisa On January 10th, 2013

We spent a week in Long Beach for the Christmas holiday, staying with my mom and Aunt Tina at their home. Lots of fun outings throughout the week and a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Delmar side of the family and a fun-filled Christmas Day with the Edmonds side of the family.

My fave: crinkle nose!

Enjoying a “meal” in the sunshine

Skyping with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Rob (who were in Detroit for Xmas), messing around with the silly faces app. Hilarious!

Sirena’s first trip to Long Beach

Posted by Lisa On July 31st, 2012

Since before Sirena was born we were planning on making a trip down south when she was one month old so that she could meet family and close friends and so that we could have a nice little vacation while we were both off of work. We were playing it by ear up until the week before we left just in case it didn’t work out (either because I hadn’t recovered fully or if she wasn’t able to travel) and we were so happy that it worked out just as we had hoped!

Traveling with an infant was…different. Our car was packed to the brim with mostly stuff for Sirena and Lola barely fit in the backseat with her! Usually when we drive down to LB we can make it down in 6 hours but with having to stop to feed her or change her diaper it took us 8 hours total, which actually isn’t terrible but it was definitely a lot longer than we’re used to. Breastfeeding her in the backseat in parking lots was a different experience but luckily we made it work and the little girl didn’t starve. 🙂

We got to see the majority of our family in Southern California and some close friends but weren’t able to see everyone we had hoped to see but hopefully within the next couple of visits she’ll be able to meet everyone! Here are the highlights of our trip…

Meeting family

One person I was extremely excited to meet Sirena was my Aunt Tina and she just fell in love with her. 🙂

Meeting for the first time!

Second time seeing each other

Meeting her grand uncle Joey (and rockin’ the no-pants look)

Seeing her Uncle Derek again

With her Nani

Hanging out with Nani and Auntie Tina

Three generations

The whole gang (minus Steve who was taking the photo!)

She also got to meet the rest of the Edmonds family…

With her big cousin Katelyn!

Auntie Judith was head over heels in love with the little lady

Aunt Sarah was so in love too!

Sirena got a double whammy when she met Uncle Thomas and her cousin Sophie

Kisses from Sophie

And Sirena experienced her first play date while in Long Beach with Kim’s daughter Amelia and Shani’s daughter Sadie…

Kevin and the Mommy group!

Sirena with her Auntie Kim

Dance party with Amelia!

Sirena meeting Sadie for the first time

Tummy time with Sadie (it’s amazing how much stronger Sadie is and only three months older than Sirena)

Meeting friends and exploring Mom & Dad’s hometown

Our close friends Brianne and Brian were so excited to meet Sirena…

Their first meeting!

Whatchu lookin’ at?

Playing tennis the morning of July 4th

Brianne, Brian and Brian’s sister Lisa just staring at the baby

Kevin and his floating baby (and Lola too!)

We had a little gathering in San Pedro so that some of my close family friends could come and meet our little munchkin…

Diane is like a second mom to me and it was so great having her meet Sirena!

Dave, Diane’s husband–he’s known my mom since she was 15 years old

Meeting Don and Rosemary

It was also a time to celebrate the birthdays of my mom, Don and Rosemary!

And lastly, it happened to be our six year wedding anniversary–it was hard to believe that six years prior we were in the same city getting married and we only dreamed of starting a family together. Now six years later we were able to celebrate with our little lady!

Sirena and Mama, mirror images of each other

Random photos from our trip…

My mom’s boyfriend Steve recently purchased a ’51 Chevy and he said that we could take it out for a spin which Kevin was beyond happy to take him up on!

Lookin’ good!

Checking out his lovely backseat passenger 😉

The gang

The boys

It was SO hot and humid compared to the Bay Area and Sirena had a hard time adjusting (she even developed a small heat rash, poor thing) so she spent a lot of time lounging in nothing but a diaper!

Trying to adjust to all that darn sunshine!

With Mama at Brianne’s bridal shower

The four of us (with Lola) spent some time at a park in Pasadena on the way to dinner at Sarah’s house and here are some photos from our afternoon there…

Flying high with the help of Dad

Baby photo shoot

She’s such a little stinker

Kisses from Dad

Getting lots of love from Mama

Those feet love the feeling of grass

::Yawn:: Tired little baby

We also spent a lot of time just hanging out at Kevin’s parent’s house where we were staying while in town. Their backyard garden was a lot of fun to hang out in and Sirena enjoyed looking at the flowers and the vegetable garden so much…

Taking in the sights of the garden with Mama

Nothing like a nap in the great outdoors!

Saying bye to our family and friends this trip was by far the hardest in the three years we’ve lived in the Bay Area…things sure do change when a baby enters your life. We had a really great time even though it went by way too quickly and we didn’t get to see nearly enough people! Until next time…

A baby story: Week 34

Posted by Lisa On May 3rd, 2012

Week 34: Baby’s as heavy as a cantaloupe!

This week has been super busy and exhausting but exciting and rewarding all at once. Most notably, we made the trip down to Long Beach for our long-awaited baby shower hosted by the women of our family!

We left at 11:30pm on Thursday night after Kevin got off of work and arrived in Long Beach at 6:45am on Friday. After catching up a bit with Dorothy and Sarah we took a 2-hour nap and, after a total of around 5 hours of sleep the entire night, we got our weekend started mid-morning on Friday. A few months ago I decided to get my belly henna tattooed for our maternity photo shoot and our baby shower so we made our way over to the Long Beach Town Center to Ziba Beauty to get ‘er done. It only took 30 minutes and cost $35 (I was expecting a lot more money and a lot more time!) and I was super happy with what the henna artist did. She had actually never done a pregnant belly before and when Sirena kicked her the first time she asked me, “Are you okay?” It was pretty funny. 🙂 But Sirena sure liked getting tattooed (a sign of what’s to come perhaps??) because she was kicking around a ton the whole time.

Later on while I was waiting for the henna to dry I took a quick video of her crazy kicks…this is one of the better videos I’ve taken so far showing just how active this little girl is…here’s the link!

That night Kevin went to hang out with Brian and I joined Kevin’s family to see my niece Katelyn in her acting debut…Alice in Wonderland at her school! It was a joint high school/middle school production and it was so fun seeing Katelyn up on stage doing her thing. We were so proud of her for auditioning, landing two parts, and spending all these months at rehearsals…I hope she continues to follow in her Aunt Lisa’s footsteps! I absolutely loved being a part of theater productions growing up and in high school.

Katelyn’s the duck in this scene

She’s the two of hearts on the far left in this scene

So proud of the little actress!

We stayed with my mom that night so that Kevin’s family could prepare for the party early the next morning and after catching up with her and Steve we ended up getting to bed around midnight…just to wake up 5.5 hours later to get ready for our maternity photo shoot! My friend Beka from Redlands is just starting her photography business (here’s her website, check her out if you’re in Southern California!) and she and her boyfriend/assistant Omar met us at 6:45am for our photo shoot on Cabrillo Beach. My mom tagged along and was able to capture some behind-the-scenes shots. I can’t wait to see how Beka’s photos turn out!

Beka and Omar hard at work!

I lovelovelove this one…can’t wait to see how it’ll look with Beka’s shots

Happy and exhausted after the shoot!

Beka and Omar after the session

Getting some well-deserved chow after the shoot

After breakfast with the gang in San Pedro, Beka and Omar went out to explore and I took a much-needed nap in preparation for the main event…our baby shower! Kevin’s sisters Sarah and Judith and his mom Dorothy did an amazing job with the decorations and food and Kevin’s parents had spent months getting the house and garden ready for the festivities…I cannot quite express how appreciative I am of all that they did for us!

There were so many people that came out to shower this little mermaid-in-the-making with adorable clothes, incredible books for her library, and wonderful baby things. And I think she really felt the love!

The early birds…the Edmonds gang and Emily

Derek, Dorothy, Judith and Kevin getting ready for the hordes of people to show up!

Meeting Amelia (Kim’s baby girl) for the first time!!

Mom and Derek

Diane and my Aunt Kathy

Derek, Aunt Tina, and Guy

So many babies at the party! The Millikan gang–Lara with Audrey, Brianne & Brian, and Lindsay with Rylan

Shani with Sadie and Kim with Amelia (these two are only about a week apart and the mamas shared the same due date!)

Alison, Heather and Beka

Seth, Steven and Omar…I’m sure they were trying to figure out what they were doing at a baby shower! Hahah.

With Claudia and Susan, friends from my time working at the Girl Scouts in OC!

With Lindsay and Jenny

Kim and Amelia!

The Redlands gang!

My favorite onesie handmade by Monique–we were in a sistahood together at Redlands called WRW

Kevin trying out the Ergo baby carrier that Derek got us…looking good! 🙂

We packed the car to the brim with all of the baby goodies and got home on Sunday evening. It was pretty surreal on the way home, I kept thinking that the next time we’re in Long Beach we’ll have another little lady in tow (not just Lola)! 🙂

We had such a great time in Long Beach with all of the baby festivities. I keep telling her that there are so many people that can’t wait to meet her and that she is one lucky little girl.

Belly shots!

Me and the zoo we’re currently living with! Lola and her cousin Mars playing nice while I take my weekly photo.

Other pregnancy updates

Total weight gained so far: 12 pounds
Fun baby developments this week: 34 weeks is a pretty big milestone for baby’s development–she’s around 18 inches long and weighs around 5 pounds, she keeps her eyes open most of the time while she’s awake and only shuts them when she’s sleeping, and she can now determine the difference between sweet and sour tastes in the amniotic fluid surrounding her.
Days until our 36 week ultrasound: Seven! We have our final ultrasound next Thursday morning to see if Sirena’s in the heads-down position and not breech (fingers crossed!) We can’t wait to see her one last time before the big day! I’ll be sure to update the blog that night to post her photo. 🙂
Days until our Bay Area baby shower: Three! Our friend Carleigh (who is expecting a couple of bebes in the fall!) is throwing us a shower on Sunday for our small group of friends up here…can’t wait!

Babymoon in Sonoma

Posted by Lisa On April 5th, 2012

The long-awaited weekend get-away for our babymoon finally arrived! We left mid-day on Friday and took a nice 1.5 hour drive to Sonoma County for a much needed break and time alone together. This will most likely be the last time in a long time before we’re able to get away from things for a while so we wanted to take advantage of the alone time as much as possible while we have it!

The weather had been pretty wet the whole week leading up to this weekend and as each day passed the chance of rain in Guerneville (the little town we stayed in) got more and more definite so we prepared ourselves for a rainy weekend.

Heavy clouds on the drive up north

Lots and lots of snoozing cows!

We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast called Cottages on River Road and had a little studio to spend the weekend in.

The row of cottages surrounded by giant trees

The community fire pit in which they had s’mores every night (except the two nights we were there, of course, due to the weather)

Beautiful gardens

Cute little welcome sign

Adorable resident kitty, Frank

Friday afternoon we relaxed in our studio and then ventured out to the “downtown” area to walk around and get some dinner.

Church & Main Streets just up the block from the Russian River

The river! Not looking so pretty this time of year but we can imagine how gorgeous it’d be during the summer months.

Obligatory couples shot, proof that we spent the weekend together!

Dinner was pretty damn disappointing, unfortunately. We found the reviews for Koala’s Fine Food to be intriguing (a burger and sushi joint that had good reviews? We’re all about that!) but the place was, well, just disappointing. I would definitely not recommend eating there and we were bummed that our first meal was such a disappointment. I guess after being so spoiled with amazing food in Oakland and San Francisco we were overdue for a sad meal out. C’est la vie! We then went walking up and down the main drag and ended up at Main Street Station for a beer (for Kevin), a little dessert to share, and some live jazz music to listen to while we digested our funky dinner.

In the middle of the night the rain started pouring pretty hard and all throughout the morning on Saturday it was coming down pretty steadily. We had breakfast at the River Inn Grill and luckily Guerneville redeemed itself in regards to food. 😉 After a couple of hours back at the hotel we ventured out to Healdsburg for some wine country sight-seeing. We went to Healdsburg almost exactly two years ago with our friends Mika, Matt, Terri, and Scott for the Wine Road wine barrel tasting weekend and it was nice to be back!

A lone, rundown farmhouse on the way to Healdsburg

Downtown Healdsburg’s Raven Theater…wish we could’ve seen “To Kill a Mockingbird”!

The rain started coming down really hard while we were out and about. Check out Kevin’s awesome umbrella (not sure if you can tell but there are little cartoon cats all around the edges, haha).

The one store we spent the most time in was an antique shop where we scored a stack of 60s records–both to begin Sirena’s collection (we’ve got a nice set of Disney records such as Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey and the Beanstalk) along with a few that I hope to use one day in my 8th grade US History classroom.

Check out this funny horse, you’re supposed to strap it on your leg and allow your kid to ride on your leg, hahah.

A random 1950s City of Long Beach pendant!

We were tempted by the amazing smells coming out of the Bear Republic Brewery so we had a yummy lunch there then decided to ditch Healdsburg and take the long way back to Guerneville–driving down unmarked, winding roads to see where it would lead us!

The sun peaking through the clouds

Beautiful farm land

We visited the Hop Kiln winery (the same one we visited in 2010) but this time it wasn’t for wine tasting…it was to use their facilities (hey, I’m pregnant and I gotta go every 22 minutes 😉 ).

Do you see the mini Hop Kiln on the lake??

My gorgeous baby-daddy-to-be

Beautiful tree + sky

Saturday night was pretty calm, even for me and Kevin’s standards! I took a nap (third trimester=exhaustion again!) and then we went out for a super late dinner at…I’m kind of embarrassed to say…Safeway! Hahhaha. By the time I woke up and we started talking about dinner most of the food joints were already closed in town so our only option was Safeway. Oh the memories Kevin and I create together! 😉

Sunday morning we ate some continental breakfast at the bed and breakfast and then took our sweet time moseying on home by taking a drive down Highway 1. We’ve seen a lot of the California coast but never that far north so it was a special treat.

The amazing California coast!

Me and my Kevi

Kevin exploring a cliff looking out onto the mighty Pacific

Belly shot + the ocean!

We had a glorious weekend away together and although it was bittersweet knowing that we wouldn’t have another weekend away just the two of us for a while, we know that as each day passes we’re getting that much closer to meeting our little lady!

Holiday visit to Long Beach 2011

Posted by Lisa On January 1st, 2012

Kevin, Lola and I were lucky enough to spend 9 full days in Long Beach visiting with family and friends over the holidays. Here’s a recap of our visit!

Christmas Eve with the Delmars

We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year so that Christmas Day wouldn’t be so stressful going back and forth between the two families and I think it worked out great!

Jess and Kevin trying to get Mars and Lola acquainted. I’m sure they’ll be best buds before you know it!

We had a non-traditional Chinese buffet for dinner that filled us up just right and a delicious assortment of See’s candies and brownies for dessert. Some photos from our evening…

Jess and Auntie Tina

Jess, Auntie Tina, and Uncle Joey

Me and Tina

Most of the group: Jess, Tina, Steve and his daughter Lacey and his grandson Christian, Uncle Joey, and Derek

Santas Jessie and Derek

Derek and his new ukulele

One of the highlights of the night was when the Delmar kids presented my mom with the gift of a song. Every year she tells us that all she wants from us is a song, no gifts, so this year we took her up on it. We decided to sing the theme song of the old cartoon “David the Gnome” that used to show on Nickelodeon and that we used to love as kids. After a couple days of rehearsing we were ready for our big debut! Here’s the link to the video of us singing on YouTube!

Christmas Day with the Edmonds

We woke up bright and early to accompany Thomas for a drive up the 91 freeway to pick up our adorable niece Sophie to spend Christmas Day with the family!

The little lady ready to celebrate with the Edmonds!

She loved taking photos with my camera, here’s a self-portrait and a photo of her dad Thomas in the rear view mirror (can you see her?)

Goofy picture of me, thanks to Sophie the photographer

Silly photo!

Say “Cheese!”

After making it home it was all fun and games until the feast was ready. Lola sure got a workout with Sophie and Katelyn around…

Sophie with Aunt Sarah and Rob

Me and my adopted kiddos, Joshua and Katelyn

We spent a good hour or so opening tons of gifts…

Kevin with his gift card to Best Buy…such a creative way to give a gift card (from our brother-in-law Luke)!

A few last photos outside before Sophie had to go back home…

Me ‘n Sarah with Sophie and Lola

Sophie showing off her Cinderella toy

Last goofy photo of the day!

Hike in Whittier Hills

Brianne, Brian, Brian’s sister Lisa, Kevin, Lola and I went on a nice long hike in the Whittier Hills the day after Christmas to burn off some of that holiday feasting we all took part of.

B & B overlooking the amazing skyline with Palos Verdes at one end (and Catalina even further off, out of frame) and downtown LA at the other end

Big hills and winding trails made for a very fun (and tiring) hike

A beautiful Buddhist temple in the Rose Hills Memorial Park

A quick little detour we took to visit a huge water tower…

…covered in graffiti.

The “slide” Kevin and Brian took down the hill (just kidding)

More fun with the Delmar family

On Tuesday night we made it to our annual Chinese massage with my mom, this time accompanied with Jessie, Derek, and my mom’s boyfriend Steve too. I didn’t get the full treatment this time around, though, because of the little bebe in utero but the masseuse did a mighty fine job of working out the kinks in my shoulders, arms, legs, and feet. Kevin got beyond the full treatment from a little lady who was working on him (NOT what you’re thinking…he was in the massage bed right beside mine of course). Here’s what I’m talking about…

Linda (yes, her name was Linda) walking all over Kevin

Then we went across the parking lot to chow down on some Vietnamese food (which, unfortunately, was not as good as we had had in years past. I ordered a crab soup and the pieces of meat were anything but crab and Kevin actually got food poisoning from it! Blech.)

On Wednesday I spent the entire day with my mom and Jessie. We spent the morning in LA exploring Grand Central Market–a really neat, open market with tons of food stalls.

Jess enjoying the market!

A really neat chalk drawing at MF Gourmet (where I had lunch)

Can you tell we’re related??

That night we met up with Derek, Steve and his grandson Christian at At Last Cafe in Long Beach for some grub.

The Delmar kids: Derek’s beer, Jessie’s wine, and my lemonade (can’t wait to partake in some yummy, non-pregnant drinks in the near-ish future)

Christian goofing off (encouraged by Jessie and Derek, of course)

Me, Derek, and mama (notice Christian’s photo bomb? Haha!)

Piggy back ride!

After dinner we dropped Derek off at his new place and took a quick tour through the house. We then took a gander at his motorcycle (he’s had it for a while but I had yet to see it for myself)…

Jess, Derek, and Vanna White checking out the bike

My mom: “Jesus, I have a big head” (hahaha!)

Fast-forward a few days…we met up with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Clay (my dad’s sister) on Saturday morning for a nice visit. We always enjoy spending time with them and we were so happy we were able to squeeze in a quick visit with them. We talked lots about teaching (since they’re both teachers) and also about family history (since Kevin’s really interested in genealogy and my Aunt Kathy is a wealth of information). Afterwards we met up with my mom, Tina, Steve, and Derek for lunch down the street.

Kev, mama, Tina and me

Miniature golfing date with Joshua and Katelyn

Part of our Christmas gift for our nephew and niece was to take them out for a morning of getting their butts whooped in miniature golf (or at least that’s what I told them in the beginning). We used to spend a lot of time with those knuckleheads but since we moved up to the Bay Area we don’t get to spend as much one-on-one time with them as before and I miss ’em a bunch so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with them during our visit.

Mini golf courses crack me up

The creepiest metal monkey you will ever see

Pancho’s Fish Tacos, anyone?

Joshua taking his turn, Kevin looking dapper

My beautiful niece…she’s getting so big!

Nerding it up…me and Katelyn pretending to look out at the pirate using our golf clubs (although it looks more like Katelyn is playing the flute, but I’ll forgive her this time)

Working on my form

Me taking an awesome shot

Kevin and Joshua were obviously impressed by Katelyn’s amazing form

Our group’s rainbow assortment of golf balls

Proof that Joshua’s butt didn’t get whooped too bad (at least by me, anyways). Katelyn, on the other hand…

I love that these three always go along with my crazy suggestions

After a round of golf we met up with almost the rest of the Edmonds family at Lucille’s for a lunchtime feast at one of me and Kevin’s favorite places. Dorothy, George, Judith and Luke met us to enjoy each other’s company at the end of our week’s visit.

Ringing in the new year

We spent a fairly quiet evening at Kevin’s parent’s house with the folks and our good friend Alison as well. We enjoyed some dinner then got started on some board games that kept us entertained (and awake!) until midnight. On the game menu for the evening: Bananagrams and Sequence.

About as exciting as our evening got!

Lola, reluctantly waking up for the countdown

Clinking our glasses of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider as the clock hit midnight (photo taken by Alison)

After a delicious breakfast of homemade waffles and pancakes (care of George), we packed up the car and made our way up Interstate 5 back home to Oakland. Lola sure seemed to enjoy her new ride…

Snoozing all the way back home

Kevin, Lola and I are very excited to begin a new year and we know that 2012 will bring some very exciting changes our way. Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas/New Year’s at the end of this year with the newest addition to our family!

A baby story: Week 16

Posted by Lisa On December 28th, 2011

Week 16: Baby’s the size of an avocado!

Last week our little lady made it through week 16 while visiting family and friends in Long Beach! I’ll put up another post specific to Christmas festivities later this week but other than the holidays we’ve been keeping ourselves pretty busy down south. Things in the pregnancy department have been same ol’, same ol’. It’s been interesting while down here with so many things to do and so many distractions, I haven’t thought too much about it and haven’t been stressing myself out about being in this limbo period. Once a week when I receive some pregnancy updates in my e-mail inbox (the ones from The Bump, Baby Center, and Babble are my favorites) I check out the message boards and it’s nice to read about other women in the same boat as me. I can’t wait to start to feel Sirena moving around in the belly–they say it will start to feel like fluttering butterflies or a swimming fish at first. Can’t wait!

We made a pretty major purchase this week which we’ve had our eyes on for months now that will make a huge difference when the baby arrives…a new car! We’re keeping our 4-door Honda Civic but we had to trade-in our 2-door Ford Focus (which we loved and were sad to say bye to) for something a little bigger to fit a car seat, Lola, and all the baby junk. We’ve gone to a few car dealerships in the past four months up north but the selection of larger cars is pretty minimal since most folks up north drive smaller sedans. We decided to check out a dealership near Kevin’s parent’s house (the same one we purchased our Ford Focus at) since they had 150+ SUV-type used cars on the lot. Kevin’s mom Dorothy tagged along and after 4 hours of negotiating we have our hands on a cute little 2008 Ford Edge!

Our little lady will be riding in style!

Lola checking out her new ride

The biggest news on the pregnancy front this week was that we made the public announcement to someone very special about Sirena’s middle name (which previously was kept a secret from most folks).

We decided to honor my mom and name Sirena after her so her name will be Sirena Linda which, in Spanish, translates to “beautiful mermaid”. I bought her a picture frame and put in a photo of Sirena’s ultrasound then wrote “Sirena Linda” on the bottom. We gave it to my mom as a Christmas gift and videotaped the reaction…I knew she would be emotional but nothing could have prepared me for her reaction! Here’s the link to the video on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Belly shot!

It’s looking a lot like last week’s belly but I’m sure in the next month or so we’ll start to see some pretty major developments…

Adventures with Lisa & Kevin